Duty and Destiny
by Princess of Thieves 17
Summary: Kagome is as wild and untamed as the frontier that has become her home. Until she meets a courageouse Indian warrior who ignites her soul, and inspiring her to defy the prejudices of her people. Kouga is to marry a Chippewa maiden for the good of his peo


Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha

A/N: _Bonjour_ everyone! Here I am again with another fanfic. Hope you like this one. It's another AU so if you don't like those then you probably shouldn't read it. But please keep flames at a minimum and review please!

_**SETTING THINGS RIGHT**_

_Penahque-geezis—_Moon of Falling Leaves

In the afternoon shadow of a large, cone shaped tepee, the young chief of the Cherokee tribe stood before a group of his braves.

He was dressed in fringed buckskin, his waist-length, coal-black hair hanging smooth and sleek down his straight back and his abnormally ice blue eyes leveling a lingering gaze at each of the braves.

"Young braves, what you've done disappoints this chief very much," Kouga said, his arms folded tightly across his chest.

"What you did was _ma-nah-dud, _bad. You have degraded yourselves, even your people, over what you chose to steal beneath the light of the moon. It is a thing of pride to steal horses. But the white mans' potatoes? Do you truly see pride in stealing food from the mouths of the elderly black-robes priests at the mission? Do you feel brave and strong for having done it? Do you…feel…proud?"

When none of the group seemed ready to apologize of explain their actions. Kouga again looked from one to the other. "Young braves, you who are the future of our Cherokee people, doesn't our world of forest, prairies, mountains, rivers, and skies give you everything you need?" he asked.

"Does it not provide you with food, shelter, clothing, and life itself?"

The boys nodded.

"Young braves, the things I just spoke of were not stolen—they were gifts from _Wenebojo_, the Great Spirit," he continued.

"These black-robed holy men are living from the soil because they are too old for the hunt, so can you not see how wrong it is to take food from them?"

Two Wings, the mastermind of the thievery, who had led his friends into doing it, smiled weakly up at Kouga. "My chief, we did this not for ourselves but for our mothers," he said in a voice that was just beginning to change from a child's into a young man's.

It would be steady, then would suddenly crack and sink to a lower pitch. "My chief, since Father Totosai introduced our people to this food one moon ago, our mothers have longed for more of it to put into their cook pots bit have not asked the priest for it."

Another of the braves, called Black Feather stepped closer to Two Wings and spoke his piece.

"My chief, do you not see that if our _gee-mah-mahs _have potatoes for their cook pots, then they will not need to bend their backs to dig roots and bulbs that grow wild on the land? Because of wanting to help our mothers in this way, we saw no wrong in taking the potatoes for them. Do not mother Earth and what grows in it belong to _all _people?"

Kouga sighed heavily. "_Ga-ween, _no," he said. "Not if what is in the ground came from seeds purposely places there by the particular person for his food."

He shook his head, then looked intently to each brave in turn. "It is wrong, especially, to steal from the black-robes, who have only peace and love in their hearts," he said. All though we haven't accepted the _chee-mo-ko-mans's _God, we have affection for the kind old men who worship their God with love and adulation just a we worship our own Great Spirit."

"I understand now," Two Wings replied. He humbly hung his head. "My chief, my heart feels _ah-had-dayn-dush-mo-win. _I apologize."

The others soon followed his lead with heads bowed in shame.

"It's good that you finally see the error of your ways," Kouga said, nodding at the boys. He unfolded his arms and placed a hand on first one brave's shoulder, and then another until he had given each of them reason to know the he lovingly accepted t apology.

"But now you have more to do with that apology," he said. They suddenly looked at him with wary questioning in their eyes.

"It is required now for you all to go to Father Totosai and not only apologize to him personally but also take the stolen property back to him."

They changed troubled glances, then looked to their chief and nodded.

"But first you must go and admit what you have done to your parents, ask for their forgiveness, as well as pray for the dame to _Wenebojo_. Then meet me in the council house," Kouga said.

" I will escort you to the mission."

The boys left him, running in different directions to their tepees. Kouga turned and walked toward his mother's dwelling, which sat not far from Kouga's much larger one.

Since he would be going to the mission today, he decided to give the journey a dual purpose. Recently a trading post had been built between the mission and Fort Hakurei.

Kouga had meet the man in charge at the trading post, but he knew his name as Trader Sessho. Kouga would go there and make his acquaintance.

Until now, Kouga and his people had always been forced to travel far to a trading post, so they were glad that this one had been established closer to their village.

The autumn winds were blowing and winter was almost upon them. Most of his people's supplies were in and ready for the winter.

Their hunt had been good and would last them until the spring. But Kouga had a few pelts left to take to this new trading post.

His main reason for going, though, was to assess the post's worth. And to assess the man who owned it. This was vest done before the spring buffalo hunt, as he wanted to be able to lead his warriors to the right trading post so they could achieve the best trade.

When Kouga reached his mother's tepee, he entered and stood just inside. He gazed down at his mother as she worked on her beading beside a warm fire.

It tugged at his hear to realize how quickly she had aged since losing her husband four moons ago.

He had been killed during a buffalo hunt when he had dared an old bull one time too many.

It pained Kouga to see his mother's furrowed face and white and gray hair. Her eyes and cheeks were sunken, and her sallow skin lay thins upon her pinched nose and high cheekbones.

She wore her hair tightly braided atop her head and had wrapped a red blanket around her crossed legs. The loose sleeve of her doeskin dress revealed a thin wrist with many silver bracelets.

Sensing his presence, Silver Moon stopped her beading and smiled up at him. "My son, what brings you to my lodge with such a downtrodden look?" she asked in a feeble voice.

"_Mah-bee-szhon, _come. Sit with me. Tell me what's on your mind."

Nodding and smiling, Kouga went and sat beside her o the thick pallet of furs. He leaned forward and lifted a piece of wood into the flames of the fire, then turned to her.

"_Gee-mah-mah, _Mother, I have to accompany some of the young braves to the mission today," he said. "They are returning stolen property."

"Stolen property?" his mother repeated, raising an eyebrow. "What sort?"

"In the night they went and dug potatoes from the mission garden," he told her. "They now know the wrong that they did, and they are returning the potatoes, and with them their heartfelt apologies."

"Shame on them for taking what was not theirs," Silver Moon said, sighing. She gazed upon her son , a man of honor who would never take anything that was not his. Instead, he was one of the most generous gift givers, especially to the toothless old people of their village.

For his goodness and his honesty, and for being the chief of their Wolff band of Cherokee people, a chief who both led and protected, he was entitles to the red-painted smoke lapels on his tepee, a sign granted only to men of honor.

Silver Moon also saw his handsomeness and his noble countenance. He was a man of intelligence, a man who made friend easily.

This helped him greatly in his dealing with those who ran the trading posts. Because of who he was, and how he used hi intelligence, he could make deals for his furs that no others could make.

His skill benefited his Cherokee people, so much so that they rarely wanted for anything. If they needed it, Quick Wolf-Kouga made certain they received it.

Silver Moon's heart was warmed every time her son came and sat with her and kept her company, for she had been so lonely since the death of her beloved husband.

"The young braves didn't see the wrong in taking fro the earth since they have been taught that what is in the earth is there for the taking and has even been place there for the good of our people," Kouga said.

"I had to explain that taking what grows naturally from the earth is deferent from taking what someone else had planted."

"And they understood?" Silver Moon asked, resuming her needlework as she slowly sewed more beads onto a buckskin vest that she had made for her son.

"_Ay-uh, _yes, I believe so," Kouga said, nodding. He watched his mother's fingers laboring with each bead. He knew that each painful movement was a labor of love, for she was making something special for him.

"_Gee-mah-mah, _while I'm at the mission I plan to also go and make acquaintance at the knew trading post," he said.

"The _chee-mo-ko-man _in charge is called by the name Trader Sessho. It's good to make friends with him now so that when spring comes, trading with him will be done with more ease. I know that you've everything you need for the long winter month ahead. Is there something else at the trading post that you might want? Is there anything special that I can get for you?"

Again Silver Moon paused in her beading . She squinted her eyes in thought, then smiled at Quick Wolf. "_Ay-uh_, yes, my son, I would like some red cloth and white woman's buttons—pearl, I believe that are called," she said.

"Also some marbles for my grandson, Little Moon." She smiled and a look of pride cam to her eyes. "Ah, that grandson of mine. It seems only yesterday that your sister, Moon Song, held him in her arms after he came from her. Now he is five winters of age and growing so quickly into a young brave."

"He _is _growing quickly, and he enjoys challenges of a child of ten," Kouga said, as in his mind's eyes he saw his long-legged nephew with his flowing hair an mischievous green eyes.

"Marbles are his favorite challenge. Yes, I shall get him several."

"Get him the ones with the brightest colors," Silver Moon said, her eyes smiling into Quick Wolf's.

"_Gee-mah-mah, _I believe you enjoy looking at the marbles even more than Little Moon enjoys using them for challenges," Kouga said, chuckling.

"_Ay-uh,_ they are something pretty to look at and to hold," Silver Moon said, herself laughing in a low sort of cackle.

"I will do these things for you," Kouga said. "Is there anything else that you can think of?"

"Yes, will you find something special, a surprise, for our friend Shame in Heart?" Silver Moon said, resuming her work. "Find something special for her. She needs some sunshine in her life." She frowned. "I do wish that she would not stay so much to herself."

Kouga nodded as he though of Shame in Heart. The woman of whom his mother spoke of had lived alone, childless and husbandless, since she had given birth to a baby eighteen winters ago.

Because of the shame of carrying the child that was not her husband's, she gave herself the name Shame in Heart.

Only Kouga and his mother visited the self-shamed woman; otherwise she was all alone. She rarely left her lodge.

Everyone knew of he illicit affair, but only she knew whose baby she had carried inside her womb. She never spoke of it to anyone, not even her best friend, Silver Moon.

Everyone knew the child was not her husbands, for a wound inflicted on him during a skirmish with a Blackfoot had made it impossible for him to have a child with his wife.

When he had seen her belly swollen with child, he had left her and the village, and no one had seen him since.

She had carried the child to full term. One day she walked out of the village big with child and returned that night, her belly flat. No one knew what she did with the newborn child and no one asked. It was her affair…her child.

Being Chippewa, Shame in Heart would have returned to her true people far away in the land of many lakes, but her friend Silver Moon had said the journey was too long back to Minnesota country, too taxing and dangerous a trip for a woman.

Silver Moon had told her friend that she would miss her terrible. He promised Shame in Heart that she and Quick Wolf would be there for her always.

Because of all of those things, Shame in Heart had stayed, and through his mother's love and understanding for the woman, Kouga had learned to love and not to condemn Shame in Heart, to help her with whatever needs she might have.

"Son, you choose her surprise gift, for you love her as much as I," Silver Moon said.

Kouga gave her a kiss, then rose to his feet. "_Ay-uh, _I shall bring something special for her," he said.

His gaze shifted to the vest. "_Gee-mah-mah_, you still bead with such skill. It is good that you wish to keep your hands busy in such a way."

"I enjoy it as much now as I did many moons ago, perhaps even more," Silver Moon said, holding the vest out, admiring it herself. "It does these old fingers good to hip them active."

"I won't be gone long," Kouga said. He smiled one last time at her, then stepped out into the afternoon sunshine. As he walked toward the council house, he stopped before Shame in Heart's tepee. He saw the darkness of the buffalo hides, the dirtiness of them.

Since her husband's abandonment of her those long years ago, she had never renewed her lodge, which all women did every spring.

The tail ends were in shreds, and the hides were streaked from smoke and age. Many time he had offered to wrap new hides around her lodge poles, even to erect her a new lodge, but she had refused and said that living in this way was also a part of her shame.

His mother came once a year and did her best to sew the shredded ends together. Shame in Heart at least allowed that.

Kouga went o and into the council house, where the young braves awaited him. Soon they were all on their way to the mission, he on his magnificent strawberry roan, they on their ponies.

Two Wings carried the bad of shame, the potatoes, on his horse.

Kouga carried enough pelts ties to the back of his steed for trading at the new trading post. He always looked forward to meting new people, to see whether of not they held trust in their eyes and friendship in their handshake.

With whites, one never knew what to expect. Kouga knew from experience that many were untrustworthy and conniving.

For his people's sake, since this trading post was so close to their village downriver, he hoped that Trader Sessho would hold none of those ugly traits.

_Princess of Thieves 15: _There the first chapter, I hope everyone enjoyed it. Please Review! .

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